


Soulstring

by Slapstix66



Series: Graffitipunk [5]
Category: Callisto 6 (Web Series)
Genre: A little bit of angst, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, a lot of misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 22:32:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18979672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slapstix66/pseuds/Slapstix66
Summary: Sometimes, soulmate things don't work quite the way they're supposed to. But it's really rare and the chances of it happening to you are slim to none. Unfortunately, fate isn't on Cass's side.





	Soulstring

**Author's Note:**

> #Callisto6Lives
> 
> Hope everyone's excited for Season 3 to start on Saturday!

Cass had always known her soulmate was in Los Angeles.

It was obvious by the way the bright red string around her left pinky would move around, following someone’s movements. That could only happen if they were close by, otherwise, it would just be tugging you in the right direction. There were many times she was tempted to try to follow the bright red string wherever it happened to lead. Especially when things were particularly rough between her and her mother and she really just wanted someone to hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be okay.

Looking back she’s glad she never followed that impulse.

She had realized they were nearby while standing outside the convention center protesting the city’s corporate overlords. She was somewhat terrified when she realized that the string was leading her inside the very place she was protesting.

That feeling of dread had stayed with her the entire day, and while Oya told her that she could come inside and look for them, she very pointedly chose to remain in the crowd, not wanting to know who was waiting for her on the other side of the string.

Only she then won a contest to have dinner with Kylan Fucking Krause of all people and she couldn’t risk turning the invitation down and hurting Oya’s chances of getting a job. So she went inside, knowing full well who she might find in there.

Cass was afforded ten minutes of relieved bliss after meeting her soulmate.

Her soulmate, Luma, was from Raft City of all places and seemed about as excited to be there as she was. The ease with which she took control of the table to start getting conversation going left Cass a little gobsmacked and before she knew what was happening, she was setting up Oya and her soulmate’s friend to collaborate on some future project. The smile on Luma’s face as she watched the pair start talking shop was one of the most dazzling sights Cass had ever seen and a part of her wondered how she managed to land the best soulmate in the history of soulmates. Not that she was even a little bias.

And then the other shoe dropped.

Cass almost thought that Luma was referring to her when she casually dropped a comment about them being soulmates. It took Cass a couple of seconds to realize she was actually referring to the tech genius whose name she’d forgotten to remember in her previous excitement.

Cass didn’t really have time to process the fact her soulmate was soulmates with someone else before the night went to hell. And suddenly her half-formed plan to run away and hide under a rock flew out the window when the six of them suddenly became superheroes. Or at the very least superpowered.

It was painful watching them together.

She couldn’t exactly avoid them because, as little as any of them wanted it to be true, they were a team now.

Luma and Lacy were super close and cuddly and if Luma wasn’t her soulmate, Cass would probably think they were cute. Instead, it was like a knife to the gut every time she saw them together.

She was fairly certain after the first couple of weeks that her soulmate status was entirely unrequited. If Luma was just pretending not to notice Cass was sure she’d have picked up on something. Instead, Luma was just her usual, nice self. It was hard for Cass not to start falling for her. Hard.

Cass understood why Luma was her soulmate.

She was kind. A little goofy and impulsive at times but those were both traits that Cass found incredibly attractive in a person. She was also a street artist and anti-corp and a shapeshifter!

Luma was probably one of the coolest people she’d ever met. It felt like a slap to the face that she was meant to be hers but would never be.

There were several times she almost told her.

The first time was after she’d dropped a helicopter tail on herself and Luma had tried (without success) to lift the large hunk of metal off of her. Luma had very carefully taken her shirt off and was bandaging her ribs, a soft smile on her face as she teased her for her impulsive attempts at showing off. Cass felt a warmth spread through her chest despite being half naked in a repair shop.

The second time was when Luma was once again trying to help her after she’d hurt herself. Only this time she’d kicked a hole in the bottom of a train and tried to stop it with her not-exactly-bare foot. Luma had Cass leaning back against her chest and had her arms wrapped around her waist. 

Cass’s desire to figure out how to help the rest of the team stop the train was only being overridden by the sharp pain in her foot. The only thing that was calming her in that moment was the feeling of Luma’s fingers carding through her hair as she held her close. She wanted to tell her.

The third time was right after she nearly died. Or while she was nearly dying. There was a good 24-hour time period where she was seriously considering it. The thought of dying without having the chance to tell her was as terrifying as the thought of actually telling her the truth. She probably would have told her if she hadn’t walked in on her and Lacy having a private moment while making Hopps’ sleeping cap.

The fourth time was after Lacy had gotten trapped in the Dark. She was sitting on the floor holding both of their hands and she realized, for the first time, that she could be okay with this too. If Luma wanted her anyways. She might have said something, sitting there in the quiet of Mark’s diving rig, if Mark hadn’t revealed himself to be under the influence of TAILS.

Telling Charlie about what was going on was very therapeutic.

She had curled up in his bed in KP’s mansion and ranted for over an hour. Charlie had moved to sit against the headboard next to her and he ran his finger through her hair comfortingly. It was the same thing he did when she’d show up at his house in the middle of the night crying because she and her mom had gotten into another fight. It helped, the familiar motion calming her as she laid the situation bare.

Charlie hummed as she finished, shifting slightly to accommodate her as she threw her arms around his waist. She felt his hand move from her hair to comfortingly rub her back.

“I’m sorry, kiddo,” Charlie paused. “Have you tried talking to her about it yet?”

“No…” Cass shrugged. “What’s the point? She’s got someone else. She doesn’t need me so what’s the point in talking?”

“There are plenty of reasons to actually talk to her instead of just sitting here moping. For starters, how do you know for a fact it’s not mutual? You haven’t actually talked to her about it..”

“I mean, sure, maybe something weird’s going on, but our situation is already super complicated, I’m not sure I could handle it getting even more difficult.”

Charlie let out a soft hum. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you find some reason to introduce us and I’ll go ahead and… take a look.” He made a wiggly motion with his fingers in front of her.

“I forgot you can do that.” Cass let out a soft huff of a laugh. “Would you? I just want to know the truth.” Charlie gently tussled her hair.

“I’ve got it. Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.”

 

Cass found that the knowledge that they were, in fact, soulmates did not make her feel any better. Actually, when Charlie told her that the bond between her and Luma was completely mutual, all she could wonder was why Luma hadn’t ever seemed to notice or react.

It was easy to start spiraling in a whirlwind of self-doubt after that. Every interaction she had with Luma was laced with a combination of fear, anger, and pain. But there was still never a single hint that Luma would acknowledge their bond.

Cass responded by throwing herself into training. And then into one brutal fight after another. It came to the point she no longer cared who or what she was fighting or what shape it left her in. She just needed some type of physical release for the emotions she was keeping pent up inside of her. Cass continued picking fights with worst and worst odds, with more and more dangerous opponents. Always returning to Blue Dolphin Base more and more bruised and battered with every night.

No one seemed to notice until the day she ran into a couple of “zombies” (or whatever the hell they’d decided to call the Cassium engineered abominations running around) and was left with a broken collarbone even she couldn’t hide.

She was promptly caught (despite her best efforts to remain unnoticed) and dragged into their makeshift medical station by a disgruntled Oya and somewhat worried Lacy. She pretended she didn’t see Luma hovering in the shadows on the far side of the room. Cass focused her energy on reassuring Oya this was a one-time thing and letting Florence reset her shattered bones.

It was a long, painful process and more than once Cass nearly asked Luma to come out of the shadows and help distract her. Instead, she bit her tongue and soldiered on through the pain, gritting her teeth as the bones snapped back into place.

After what felt like several hours of reconstructive work (but was probably about forty minutes) Florence finally pulled away from her with a loud, excited (for a robot) exclamation that her bones were in the process of mending and that she should refrain from doing anything to agitate the injury for the next forty-eight hours.

Minimum.

Cass half-heartedly agreed to the various “requests” Oya and Lacy made as they packed up, seeming content that she was going to behave at least for the time being. Cass waited until the door closed behind them before collapsing back against the medical bed, completely exhausted. She sighed, mentally taking stock of the various injuries she hadn’t told them about and making sure nothing felt life-threatening.

Just as she closed her eyes, fully intent on taking a twenty-minute nap before trying to head to her room, she heard a rustle from the corner of the room. Cass stiffened as she realized that Luma must not have left with Oya and Lacy. She heard the sound of a chair scraping against the floor and finally looking over she watched as Luma sat down next to her.

Luma gave her a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Hey. You okay?” Luma’s voice was soft like she was trying to make sure she didn’t spook her, and Cass felt an overwhelming wave of emotions wash over her. It took every ounce of self-control in her not to reach out and grab Luma. Which was probably why it was so easy for her to slip.

“Do you care?” The words were quiet, resigned rather than angry like Cass would have expected. But Luma still flinched away from her as the loaded question escaped.

“W-what’s that supposed to mean?” The look Luma was giving her was full of hurt and a hint of anger that nearly made Cass back down. Her more impulsive side won out. As did her need to just know.

“It’s been four months, Luma. There comes a point where you can’t act like you don’t know anymore…” Cass sat up, the exhaustion temporarily abandoning her as she moved to get as far away from Luma as possible. In her haste, she nearly missed the way Luma flinched away from her as she moved. Nearly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Cass. I’m sorry if…”

“Look, I get it, it’s fine. I’m not going to force you to be with me or anything, okay? You’re free to do whatever just… don’t pretend like you don’t know.” Cass tried to backpedal slightly as she leaped to her feet. Immediately she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her, the room starting to spin.

Before she could pitch over onto the ground, however, she felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her waist, holding her up. Unintentionally, Cass felt her eyes lock with Luma’s and despite what she’d just said she felt a flash of somewhat possessive affection racing through her body.  The anger and hint of fear Luma had shown a moment ago had faded and was replaced entirely with confusion and a kind sort of warmth Cass couldn’t name. She gently pressed Cass back onto the bed, though she seemed fine with Cass sitting up instead of lying down.

“I’m sorry if I’ve done something that made you think I don’t care about you or your wellbeing.” Luma reaches up and cupped Cass’s cheek in her palm, letting the warmth seep into her skin. “But I get the feeling there’s something else you’re talking about and Cass, I swear I have no idea what it is.”

Cass opened her mouth to reply. Planning on insisting that there was no way in hell Luma couldn’t know they were soulmates when she paused.

There was a beat of silence as it hit her all of a sudden that Luma legitimately had no idea what she was talking about and Cass wasn’t sure if she wanted to scream or cry.  Instead, she simply held up her left hand in front of Luma’s face, the bright red string pulled taut in between them, permanently connecting them to each other.

“This?”

There was a brief pause where Luma just stared at her, seemingly entirely bewildered, before her eyes went wide and she gasped softly.

“Wait you’re my… I just… give me a second…” Luma stuttered. “You’re my… you’re my soulmate?”

“I mean… yeah?” Cass gestured between their hands.

There was another long, awkward pause as Luma watched her with wide eyes. There was a flash of understanding across Luma’s face.

“I… I’m soul-blind, Cass.” Luma gestured to her eyes. “I can’t see them. I… really?”

Cass’s hand shook as she reached out and brushed her fingers through Luma’s hair, a soft sigh escaping her as Luma leaned into the touch.

“Yeah… Charlie checked for me cause I thought it was just on my end cause of you and Lacy and” Cass was cut off as Luma leaned forward and pressed their lips together, carefully avoiding putting any pressure on Cass’s healing collarbone as she wrapped her arms around the stunned woman. Cass held Luma to her as gingerly as possible, a well of emotions forming in the pit of her stomach as Luma pulled away slightly with a large grin across her face.

Cass was so distracted looking at Luma that it took her a moment to realize that the pair of them had begun glowing with a familiar yellow energy. There was a series of cracking sounds as the pain in her collarbone faded, the bone mending itself under the guidance of the Callisto energy flowing between them. Cass reached down and grabbed Luma’s hands in hers.

“So… are you busy tomorrow? I’d really like to go out since… you know… you’re my soulmate.” Luma looked a little overwhelmed as she said the words, though there was still a goofy grin on her face.

“I’m always free for you, babe.”


End file.
